Saturday, October 29, 2005

Climate scientists from Bergen have published a paper on October 20th Science Express, (which previews elected papers before publication in Science). They report growth estimated to be about 6 cm per year during the study period, 1992–2003 of the Greenland Ice sheet..

Climate change debates have promoted these studies using satellite data over the last 11 years – a much hyped publicised sea level increase of 7 metres would result from the Greenland Ice field melting. This process, expected on a millennial time scale, should begin upon crossing the critical threshold for surface air temperature increase (~3ºC) for Greenland, predicted to happen before the end of this century.

Second, increased Greenland Ice Sheet melt and freshwater input into the northern North Atlantic Ocean is theorized to weaken the Gulf Stream at high latitudes and possibly even disrupt the global thermohaline circulation on a relatively rapid, multi-decadal time scale.

Johannessen and co-workers attribute the observed growth in the interior of the Greenland due to increased snowfall brought about by variability in the regional atmospheric circulation, the so-called North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) phenomenon.i.e snow in winter.

Using their ice-sheet elevation estimates, the known NAO, the researchers established, for the first time, a direct relationship between Greenland Ice Sheet elevation change and the NAO. i.e snow in winter.

Elevation changes during winter were found to be negatively correlated (–0.88) to the winter NAO index, explaining about three quarters of the elevation changes.

The strong correlation between winter elevation changes and the NAO index, suggests a previously underappreciated role of the winter season and the NAO for elevation changes – a wildcard in Greenland Ice Sheet mass-balance scenarios under global warming.

In other words, observed phenomena do not fit the extrapolations of the Global Warming theory – It is interesting therefore to consider the views of the much loved IPCC (Acronym for Scientific jihad against Industrial development) in seeking to explain the mission of NASA’s ICE Satellite.

A key category of scientific uncertainty identified by the IPCC is "Polar ice sheets which affect predictions of global sea level change".Early commencement is needed to establish a baseline on ice balance beforegreenhouse warming becomes more significant.

Last month I had dinner with Sanjar Umarov at Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington, just across from the White House. Sanjar leads Uzbekistan’s newest and best publicised opposition grouping, Sunshine Uzbekistan, which had largely taken over the Peasants and Entrepreneurs’ Party, itself a fairly recent addition to the opposition ranks.

There was a great deal of suspicion about Umarov from longer standing opposition figures. Umarov was an oligarch, from one of the leading regime families. He had made money in oil and cotton trading, both sectors which cannot be accessed without an inside political track. He had also been involved in the Uzdunrobita mobile telephone company, in which the major Uzbek partner was Gulnara Karimova, the President’s daughter. In March 2004 Karimova sold her shares in Uzdunrobita to a Russian company for 212 million dollars, a figure which places a much higher than realistic value on the company.

This transaction was an important stage in the peculiar business dealings between Russia and the Karimov family, which culminated in last November’s deal to allocate the bulk of Uzbekistan’s natural gas reserves to Gazprom. This deal was negotiated between Gulnara Karimova and Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek born Russian oligarch who bought a substantial number of shares in Corus, the British steel company. Usmanov is also a Director of Gazprom responsible for their affairs in the former Soviet Union outside Russia.

Gulnara received a large cash payment - $88 million, according to my sources – on completion of the Gazprom deal, with further payments to come as gas is exported. Alisher Usmanov gave Putin a sweetener of 40% of the shares in Mapo Bank, an important Russian business bank with a close relationship to several blue chip western firms operating in Russia. The shares were made over to Piotr Jastrejebski, Putin’s private secretary who was a college friend of Alisher Usmanov and shared a flat with him.

This web is closely associated with Karimov’s succession strategy. He is desperate for Gulnara to succeed him, and the cash and Russian support is building up her power base. Some sort of Alisher Usmanov/Gulnara Karimova alliance is Karimov’s first choice to take over, in six or seven years time. This is the background to the diplomatic revolution of the last six months, with Karimov abandoning the US and turning back to the embrace of Mother Russia.

It is worth recalling that the Karimov regime had been aggressively anti-Russian, in terms of both propaganda, and of practical measures of linguistic discrimination. Approximately two million ethnic Russians have fled Uzbekistan since independence in 1991; about 400,000 are left.

This reorientation towards Russia went along with fierce anti-enterprise measures designed to stifle any entrepreneurial activity not under direct control of the Karimov family. This explained the physical closures of borders and bazaars, the crackdown on crash transactions and the channelling of all commercial activity through the state banks.

These developments not only brought still greater economic hardship to the poor, they created losers among the wealthy elite. Sanjar Umarov is an archetypal example of such “New losers”.

Umarov had studied business administration in Tennessee on a US government scholarship. His trading interests had widened from their Uzbek base. He has a home in Memphis, and a green card. His children are US citizens. Among the Uzbek elite, a class had come into existence of people who could do business with the West. Their business was now being cut off by Karimov.

It would be wrong to credit Sanjar Umarov with purely selfish motives. Unlike so many of his countrymen, he has the education and experience to understand that Karimov’s policies are economically disastrous. Over dinner, we shared our frustration over this: Uzbekistan is not a naturally poor country. It is extremely well endowed with gas, gold, uranium, iron, coal and most rare minerals you can think of. It is historically fertile and could be so again once the government-dictated cotton monoculture is abandoned.

Uzbekistan’s plight is inflicted on it by appalling government. Umarov and I both believe it could recover surprisingly quickly once basic economic freedoms are established, of which the first must be to take the land from the state and give it to the peasant farmers. Over dinner we discussed other ideas, such as voucher privatisation schemes to enable the common people to benefit from Uzbekistan’s mineral wealth. I found Umarov attentive, interested and pro-active.

The outlawed Uzbek opposition has been fractured. There are genuine, historical differences between the Erk and Birlik parties, and those differences are vital to a democracy. But, until we achieve democracy, people need to work together against Karimov. The parties had moved to do that, to their great credit, but there was understandable resentment and suspicion from those who had suffered in opposition for years, towards a “Johnny Come Lately” like Sanjar Usmanov.

Well, he is certainly suffering now in his Tashkent cell. And, if Karimov is to be overthrown, in practice some reform-minded “insiders” are going to be needed to build the necessary national unity for reconstruction. That has to be faced. There are several prominent Uzbek opposition leaders, and Umarov now joins such figures as Mohammed Salih, Abdurahim Polat and others. One day let us hope the Uzbek people will freely choose between their politicians. For now, personal ambition needs to be subordinated to the need to end Karimov’s reign of terror.

The urgent need now is for all the opposition parties, including the Sunshine Coalition, to agree a platform of basic reform in the economy, the constitution, the police and judiciary, agriculture, education and many other areas. The broad lines of change need to be ready to roll out once Karimov goes. The most useful thing donors and foreign NGOs could do now would be to set up a programme outside Uzbekistan working with all parties to agree a plan of basic reform.

I found Umarov engaging and enthusiastic. I urged him to be cautious about returning to Uzbekistan, and was rather puzzled by his apparent confidence that he could pursue his political aims inside Uzbekistan without personal danger. Plainly he had good contacts with US official circles – since Karimov turned against the US, a pro-Western oligarch is a saleable commodity in Washington.

That Umarov was arrested at the time of the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov to Tashkent is a sign of the strength and ugliness of the current Uzbek/Russian relationship. Umarov is being kept in solitary confinement. Nodira Khidatoyova of his party claims to have been told by an inside source that the Prokurator’s office have been instructed to destroy his mind through psychotropic drugs.

That is certainly feasible. There have been many examples of prisoners being forcibly injected, and Elena Urlaeva, another dissident I know, is currently undergoing such “treatment” in a psychiatric institution. Sanjar Umarov’s lawyer seems to provide some evidence for this. He found him naked, in solitary confinement, making repetitive movements and unable to communicate coherently.

The response of the international community to the brutal treatment of an opposition leader has been pathetic, as always with Uzbekistan. The UK, as EU Presidency, issued a pious statement hoping that “International norms of treatment would be respected”, when plainly they are not being.

Umarov is now being charged with “embezzlement”, and the UK hopes these charges will be “properly investigated”. How stupidly, utterly, inadequate! There is no “proper” investigation procedure in Uzbekistan, where 99% of those tried are convicted, and dissidents are framed literally every day, usually with narcotics or firearms offences. To pretend there is a shred of legitimacy to this treatment of Sanjar Umarov is a nonsense. Why is an alleged embezzler naked in solitary confinement?

If corruption is the real concern of the Uzbek authorities, Karimov and his daughter would be the first arrested. The international community, and the UK in particular, needs a much tougher response before Umarov dies in jail.

Friday, October 28, 2005

A Cheney aide whose name rarely surfaces in either the Iraq pre-war intelligence fiasco or Scooters exposure has been heavily involved in both. David Addington, the general counsel (and ex-CIA) to the Vice President. Addington seems adept at working in the shadows a Washington Post profile (11/10/05)is of interest…

Where there has been controversy over the past four years, there has often been Addington. He was a principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects. He was a prime advocate of arguments supporting the holding of terrorism suspects without access to courts.

Addington also led the fight with Congress and environmentalists over access to information about corporations that advised the White House on energy policy. He was instrumental in the series of fights with the Sept. 11 commission and its requests for information...

Now if they are looking to replace Scooter ... and they are ... we have no pic of DA .. seems a VERY shrinking violet... sound on torture .

Whilst the world and it’s intellectual elites , Blair etc., struggle with the concept of erasing Israel from the map, Mapquest have already removed Palestine and provided a map of the “Greater Israel”.

….Recently, I was quite surprised to find that the map of Israel on the popular Internet site MapQuest presents the area of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights (Syrian Heights) as undifferentiated from Israel proper. In other words, as opposed to depicting Israel delineated by its internationally recognized borders, MapQuest displays the “Greater Israel,” which is the dream of many in the Israeli right wing. The realization of this "Greater Israel," of course, precludes any possibility of the Palestinian people realizing their national aspirations.

Go and read the article, complete with other curious maps that remove Palestine from the map.

Israeli aircraft fired 2 missiles at a car, killing Islamic Jihad activists in the Jebaliya refugee camp, adjacent to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Thursday Oct. 27, 2005.. Hospital officials said at least 7 people were killed and 15 wounded, 4 of them critically. Among those killed were at least two Islamic Jihad members, including Shadi Mohanna, the group's field commander for northern Gaza, and probably Mahmud Jahud (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Now (Friday) also named dead are Rami Assaf, 15, Faiz Badran, 45, who was to run in the forthcoming parliamentary elections as a Fatah member, and Mohammed al-Wahidi, 65. Two more bodies to be identified, one is a boy.

The assassination, on the orders of Ariel Sharon personally, came only hours after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised suicide bombings and said Israel should be "wiped off the map." Israeli leaders called for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations for the president's comments, which also upset Tony Blair.... 'completely and totally unacceptable', said UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.... he may have been talking about Israeli State Assassinations or Iranian populist rantings.

In Jenin on the Israeli occupied West Bank, soldiers backed by helicopter gunships arrested Abdel Halim Izzedine, an Islamic Jihad leader, at his home.

"If the Palestinian Authority does not take serious and tangible action against terrorism, there will be no diplomatic progress and that would be a pity. In such a situation, I will not meet with Abu Mazen,"

...... Sharon said after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Jerusalem.

Yesterday it also emerged that Sanjar Umarov, chairman of the opposition Sunshine Coalition, who was arrested on Sunday for alleged embezzlement, had shown signs of having been tortured in jail. His lawyer said that he saw Mr Umarov naked, swaying back and forth in his cell. "He threw all his clothes out into the feeding slot and didn't react to my words," Valery Krasilovsky told Associated Press.

You won't find news about the Blackberryless senior power execs (previous post) on the BBC ( except they report Scottish MSP's have them, and the Speaker of the House of Commons has banned MP's using them in the House) but you will find the BBC (AKA Foreign Office State Broadcasting Service) has backed down and is suspending its newsgathering operations in the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan due to "security concerns."

All local staff are being withdrawn and the office in the capital Tashkent will close for at least six months pending a decision on its long term future.(Guradian today)

Regional Head Behrouz Afagh said the staff had been harassed and intimidated in recent months, making it difficult for them to do their job.

In June, the World Service correspondent, Monica Whitlock, was forced to leave Tashkent by the Uzbek government.

Two local staff members have since been granted refugee status by the United Nations.

That must give enormous encouragment to the opposition to "Boil in the Bag" dictator Karimov ... let's just hope that he keeps up sending on the deatils of his cookery experiments so Jack "The Torturers Friend" Straw can keep up to date with "The War on Terror" ... having spent all last week with "The Whore on Terror".

Might one ask what the Tashkent Ambassador is doing ? His website is silent, as is the FCO, Jack Straw in announcing closure of ten (now EU) foreign language services yesterday, didn't mention Uzbekistan.

'British Governments have long put the task of protecting our citizens abroad at the top of their priorities.

He should have word in his boss's ear.

By the way, if you want to read Ms Manningham Buller's (capo di capo MI6) evidence about getting information by TORTURE ...er..er detainee reporting,Channel 4 have it under FOI at this site WARNING ... do not let children read this, and make sure your breakfast has settled.

Siemens Business Services (SBS) uses Vodafone's network, to provide the BBC with a service for 300 “power” users (i.e. corporation's executives who spend the most time out of their head the office ) of Canadian company RIM Blackberry devices.Last week users started receiving fragments of other people's e-mails so the BBC has shut down its BlackBerry mobile email service. (Cue for Armando Ionucci Radio 4 comedy program)

A flaw in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server has been identified by RIM who say that the bug that plagued the BBC was a "rare conjunction of circumstances" which only occurs in a single service pack for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

In a statement RIM said: "We have developed and tested a fix for an obscure bug identified in a specific service pack release for BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The bug was isolated to version 4.02 and does not exist in version 4.03 or other earlier versions. RIM is aware of a single reported incident of the bug and responded promptly with a fix."

RIM, who recently announced a joint venture with Microsoft, Verizon and Palm for the new Treo 650e mobile in the US claims more than 3 Mn suers worldwide any errant messages resulting from the flaw, did not make it beyond the corporate firewall and "the bug did not generate any external risk". It says here.

In 2002, the BBC banned any of its staff from using devices not based on a Microsoft operating system.

Keen students of the technical capacity of Mr Blair’s surging crowd of sharp suited PR johnnies still relish the day in January when uber spinmeister Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's former chief of communications, mistakenly sent an email from his BlackBerry apparently intended for a party official, suggesting they should get Trevor Beattie, TBWA's Ad agency boss, to issue a statement re the pre-election flying pigs poster and anti-semitic demionising of “Fagin” Michael Howard.

In it, he said:

"Just spoke to trev. think tbwa shd give statement to newsnight saying party and agency work together well and nobody here has spoken to standard. Posters done by by tbwa according to political brief. Now fuck off and cover something important you twats!"

The e-mail was sent by mistake to Newsnight journalist Andrew McFadyen.Apologising later he said ....

"Not very good at this e-mail Blackberry malarkey."Never known such a silly fuss since the last silly fuss but there we go. Must look forward not back."

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Rasul Kudayev, was born and brought up in Kabarda-Balkaria . He was one of 7 Russian nationals arrested by U.S. troops in Afghanistan almost 4 years ago to the day on 31st October 2001.

The US forces opened fire on a truck of prisoners, and killed many unarmed men in cold blood. Rasul was fortunate to survive but sustained a serious injury to his hip. To this day, the bullet remains in Rasul's hip. Throughout his time in detention, at Kandahar and eventually in Guantanamo, Rasul was denied medical treatment, despite the US forces knowing that he was injured. Like countless other detainees, he was also tortured.

In March of 2004 all 7 were handed over to Russia (after secret negotiations) where they all were charged with illegal crossing of a state border, mercenary activities and participation in a criminal gang. In June of the same year all the charges were dropped and the men were released. Since then Rasul has been living in Nalchik , which is the main city of the Muslim Kabardino-Balkaria region, near rebel Chechnya. The region borders North Ossetia, where Chechen fighters attacked a school in Beslan last year.

Since his release, he has been unable to get treatment in Russia for his wound. Russian policy states that an individual is required to possess a Russian passport before being allowed medical treatment. Rasul has tried unsuccessfuly to obtain a passport on numerous occasions as the Russian authorities are continuously investigating him for various alleged 'offences'.

Rasul is now bedridden and cannot even get up without assistance. He is very young (in his 20's) and should be the breadwinner for his family. However, due to his injury, his elderly mother has to go out to work.

The only way in which Rasul's health can be restored is via private medical treatment, in order to have the bullet removed.

In August of this year, the head of the Russian Islamic Committee, Geidar Jemal, reported on Rasul Kudayev having been abducted in Nalchik. “People wearing balaclava masks and dressed in camouflage seized Kudayev in the presence of his mother and sister and took him to an unknown destination,” Jemal said. “I think that Kudayev may be subjected to torture. He is a very sick man and if he is tortured, he may not survive,” Jemal concluded.

Several days later Kudayev was released.

Chechen separatists have claimed responsibility for what the authorities say was a "carefully planned" simultaneous attack on police, army and Federal Security Service buildings on October 13th 2005 in Nalchick. A military operation was launched to dislodge a handful of rebels who were holding a small group of civilians in a shop in the centre of the town. They killed their Chechen captors who had held them overnight in Nalchick in the Caucasus, effectively ending a huge rebel raid that reportedly has killed dozens of people.

Justice officials say eight rebels were killed, and their five captives freed, after they tried to drive away in a mini-bus from the police station in the town centre where they had been holed-up overnight.

Chechen separatists have claimed responsibility for what the authorities say was a "carefully planned" simultaneous attack on police, army and Federal Security Service buildings.

The exact number killed (up to 200 people is commonly claimed) and injured on both sides remains unclear.(Rebels statement from KAVKAZ Centre)

Calm has now been restored to Nalchik, but though the Kremlin claims it has the Caucasus under control, events on the ground appear different.

Reasons for the hold up and kidnapping are still unclear but earlier in October, a woman said to be a sister of Chechen warlord, Doku Umarov, went missing in Chechnya. Natasha Khumadova, a resident of Urus-Martan, was abducted by unknown gunmen, the republican Interior Ministry had reported.

The authorities suspect Doku Umarov of assisting Shamil Basayev in organizing a blast in Znamenskoye killing 14 people when a UAZ truck hit a mine earlier this summer.

Russian rights activists, on their part, do not rule out that Khumadova’s disappearance could be an act of what they describe as official counter-taking of hostages aimed to exert pressure on the rebel leader.

On Saturday 22nd October 2005 sources said Kudayev was arrested by local police after they had questioned other suspects arrested in the wake of the Oct. 13 raid in Nalchik . “There is evidence that he was involved in an attack on a traffic police post in Khasanye,” the source said.

In Rasul Kudayev’s case, the basis for the search was an anonymous call to the UBOP MVD hotline of Kabardino-Balkaria.

At least that is the basis indicated in the order signed by an inspector in the Major Case department of the General Procurator's office of the Southern Federal Region, Senior Adviser, Y. Savrulin. The anonymous caller supposedly reported that Kudayev himself participated in the attack in Nalchik, and had weapons and ammunition stored in his house. The search found nothing, but Rasul Kudayev was nevertheless detained in spite of the absence of an attorney

The 'War on Terror' is about to claim yet another innocent as one of its victims as Rasul Kudayev is slowly facing death after severe torture and abuse by the Russian FBS. False allegations by an anonymous source claimed that Rasul was behind the siege on Nalchik on 13th October 2005. Despite having searched his entire house, they have not found any evidence linking him to the attacks.

A government appointed lawyer has confirmed that Rasul has been beaten so badly that he cannot speak or even raise his head in acknowledgment. His family have been told to prepare for the worst by the doctor who examined him. After having been tortured during his time in Kandahar and Guantanamo Bay, this most recent abuse has placed him in a critical state.

On Saturday, over 15,000 people in 38 cities worldwide took the first step towards telling the story of the children of northern Uganda. GuluWalk Day attracted people of all nationalities, colour, race and religion in a global show of support for the innocent victims of the world’s most ignored humanitarian emergency. Along with the mass turnout, the events of GuluWalk Day were also featured by over 50 news sources worldwide. Get all the news / pics here and here

By Lawrence B. Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002 to 2005. LA Times

IN PRESIDENT BUSH'S first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. ….

But the secret process was ultimately a failure. It produced a series of disastrous decisions and virtually ensured that the agencies charged with implementing them would not or could not execute them well.

I watched these dual decision-making processes operate for four years at the State Department. As chief of staff for 27 months, I had a door adjoining the secretary of State's office. I read virtually every document he read. I read the intelligence briefings and spoke daily with people from all across government. ….. complete article here

Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, who died in the London Transport 7/7 bombings, ( he was unknown to the security services in July 2005 ) featured in a filmed 2004 surveillance operation in which he was speaking to a British-based terrorism suspect says BBC 2 Newsnight, citing a single, unnamed "well-placed source".

The BBC said it had no independent corroboration that Khan was secretly filmed by intelligence services talking to the terror suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The BBC said a suspect held in connection with the 2002 Bali bombings has alleged that Khan went to Malaysia and the Philippines in 2001 to meet leaders of al Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiah suspect said Khan trained with leaders of the group in the Philippines. The BBC do not say under what conditions ( torture ?) me made this allegation or where.

In 2003, Khan met an Islamic extremist in Pakistan who cannot be named for legal reasons who has since confessed to supplying military equipment to al Qaeda, (night sights) the BBC reported. He is a U.S. citizen from a Pakistani family from New York who travelled to Pakistan a week after the September 11 attacks. Khan, is also alleged to have seen this same man in Leeds in 2003, the BBC said.

A London police spokeswoman declined to comment. No one at the Home Office could be reached for comment.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

2 magnificent French Cabinets were made for the Palace of Versailles around 1675 grace the the Drawing Room of Drumlanrig Castle, presented by King Louis XIV to King Charles II who gave them to his natural son, The Duke of Monmouth. An almost identical cabinet to the larger (see pic) of these is now on display at the Paul Getty Museum in the United States of America, while the smaller boasts a companion in the Wallace Collection in London.

Value ? Priceless. Like the Da Vinci painting stolen from the Castle in a daring daylight raid in 2003, claimed to be worth £80 Mn, their owner is Walter Francis John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch, 11th Duke of Queensberry (b. 1923) Eton and Christ Church,Oxford.

He owns five major landed Estates, his estimated personal fortune of £55m is supplemented by a further c.£400m held by the Buccleuch Group, his holding company.

One company in the group of the enterprising Duke, (the largest landowner in the country) is Buccleuch BioEnergy , who will provide over 60MW of plant in the next 5/6 years or so, to provide metered biomass heating to commercial and domestic customers using locally sourced forestry and sawmill co - product (offcuts). Concentrating on the Scottish borders, South Central Scotland and the Aberdeen, Aviemore and Perthshire, the business claims it will expand and not be limited by geography.

What is this sophisticated technology that the Duke is so anxious to press on the Highlander and Lowlander alike? Well it’s the Köb Pyrot range of innovative wood pellet burning boilers manufactured by Köb & Schäfer GmbH, Flotzbachstrasse 33, A-6922 Wolfurt, of Austria. Their perfect combustion lowers the emissions of CO and NOx to below that of modern oil heating systems. Unlike oil and gas, wood is CO2-neutral and renewable, burner efficiency of more than 90% is achievable.

On January 3rd this year, Buccleuch BioEnergy was awarded a tax free grant to develop the business of £571,933 from the Big Lottery renewable Energy Fund to "to develop the business ."

What the fuck are we doing lining the pockets of this aristocratic billionaire from Lottery Funds for a commercial enterprise which is merely flogging imported equipment! What are we doing but sustaining the forelock tugging dependents of this chinless childless wonder - descended from one of Charles' II's whores.

The London Assembly's Environment Committee says 5% of east London flood defences are “poor” or “very poor” in a new report. The report empasises the web of bodies producing planning policies and strategies in the Thames Gateway growth leaving engineers, developers and architects uncertain about standards for new building.

Chairman Darren Johnson, says:

"We are extremely concerned about development plans for East London and the building of 120,000 new homes (= to 5% of current housing stock in GLC) in Thames Gateway by 2016. "These plans are simply not taking the flood risk issue seriously enough. Structured responsibility for control of new developments is essential in this area."

1.25 million people are already at risk from flooding by the Thames and a major flood in the Thames Gateway could cost as much as £12 billion. Munich Re in January 2005 put London into the Megarisk category because if it's risk of serious flooding.

16 opportunity and intensification areas are discussed in the East London Sub-regional Development Framework. These areas are expected to site 40 – 45 per cent of the housing and 85 per cent of new jobs planned until 2016 for the sub-region. Of these sites only 2 are considered to have no need for defences against flooding risk. 12 are at risk of tidal flooding and 2 more are at risk from fluvial flooding.

‘Initial calculations suggested that a major flood in the Gateway could cost between £12-16 billion, with about £4-5 billion coming from the new developments if precautions are not taken in the new developments.’

Says the Association of British Insurers, which observation precedes the introduction of increased insurance premiums for all.

In early 2004, we were told by the Environment agency that 19 kms of the 223 kms of tidal flood defences ‘are in less-than-satisfactory condition’ = 8% of the defences. ‘there are parts where the condition of the defences is poor or very poor, and that affects the chance that the defence could breach under an extreme flood. It is about five per cent of the defences …

Now where have we heard this sort of thing before ? ... New Orleans ?

Maybe in the anxiety to grab the prestige of running the Olympics in 2012 someone has made assumptions which cannot be substantiated. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in a 156 page report said that if the government provided only the legal minimum flood protection risk over the next 20 years, flood plains could become "ghettos" of unsellable homes, where there would be "more potential for loss of life"

E.ON is to build the largest dedicated UK biomass power station in Lockerbie in Scotland. Work on the innovative 44 Mw power station will commence in late 2005 to go on stream at the end of 2007. The EUR 130Mn (£89Mn) investment by the German company, the world's largest private-sector energy services company, will be built by a consortium of the Norwegian company Kvaerner Power, part of the Aker Kvaerner group and Siemens.

Kvaerner will deliver the power boiler, fuel supply system and flue gas cleaning system. The power boiler, with steam capacity of 126 MW, is to use Kvaerners unique bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) technology and it will burn biofuels such as green wood and recycled wood.

Siemens will supply civil works, the turbine and the condenser for the plant.

The biggest of the National Lottery distributors, The Big Lottery Fund, supported the development of the new biomass plant with a grant of £18m from the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme (approx 25% of cost). Of the 220,000 oven-dried tonnes of fuel required for the station every year 20% will come from willow harvested by local farmers as Short rotation coppice (SRC) plantations and coppiced every three to five years to provide wood fuel. In the UK,. Initial fuel contracts will probably be for forestry residue.

It is estimated that the power station, which will be located at Steven's Croft, will create 40 direct and 300 indirect jobs in forestry and farming.

Aker Kvaerner has total annual sales of US$ 4.5 billion and employs around 22 000 employees in more than 30 countries.

In September Siemens Power Generation announced the agreement to supply its new 3.6 megawatts wind turbine for the Burbo Banks offshore wind farm in Liverpool Bay, England. The farm is being developed by SeaScape Energy Ltd., a joint Danish( Elsam A/S ), and the French ( state owned EDF Energies Nouvelles) enterprise and will have 25 wind turbines with a total capacity of 90Mw. The order is valued at over EUR90 Mn (£49 Mn). The Big Lottery Fund, supported the development of field with a grant of £10m (20% of cost) from the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme.

Call me old fashioned but I didn't think that the Lottery existed to give bungs to the some of the biggest companies in the world, including a french State company, to produce an essential product like electricity.

We need to develop the new green industrial revolution that develops the new technologies that can confront and overcome the challenge of climate change; and that above all can show us not that we can avoid changing our behaviour but we can change it in a way that is environmentally sustainable

- Tony Blair, addressing event marking the 10th anniversary of His Royal Highness' Business and the Environment Programme, London, 14 September 2004

Great Tony, but it doesn't seem to be UK industry that is developing the "new technologies".

Welcoming the visit of Officials from the Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in April. Welsh Secretary Peter Hain (the man with the tan from the can) said, before they set about looking at May’s elections to the National Assembly for Wales, the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly.:

"The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights plays a key role in promoting the principles of democracy, not only within the territories of its own participating states but also in other parts of the world where new democratic structures are being developed.

"I very much hope that their assessment mission will result in good practices from Wales being adopted in other democracies. At the same time, we will be happy to look closely at any suggestions they may have for enhancing our own arrangements."

How very odd that they were not invited to cast their eye over the arrangements in Iraq for the referendum .. it's still not too late for their Parliamentary elections in December....

Reuters reports Rosa Parks died aged 92 in Detroit She had been suffering from Progressive dementia. Her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus riots 50 years ago was mentioned in a post a few days ago about Jack Straw and Condi Rice spending time together in Alabama.

Meanwhile racial tension in Birmingham (UK) between Asians and Afro- Caribbeans continues after 2 deaths over the weekend.

Q: When you refused to stand up, did you have a sense of anger at having to do it?

Rosa Parks: I don't remember feeling that anger, but I did feel determined to take this as an opportunity to let it be known that I did not want to be treated in that manner and that people have endured it far too long. However, I did not have at the moment of my arrest any idea of how the people would react.

It seems without exception - forgive me, I have not examined every reference... the bloggers of the world are excited, elated, overjoyed, super sized because they (snigger, snigger...) know that Uncle Bill's Microsoft Word Tracking feature hasn't been turned off ( ..heh .. heh...) by those boneheads at the UN. Doh, that dumbass German lawyer Mehlis, caught with his trousers around his ankles!

Well that dumbass lawyer has got the names he wanted out there, this is NOT his final report, and everything is left to someone else to sort out.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Florida residents on camera acting out the need to procreate the human race whilst CNN covers Wilma sweeping across Florida - confirms many viewers idea that their news coverage is a form of pornography ... now we have the real thing. Spotted by Jesus' General

You might want, however to read Michael Young of the Beirut Daily Star in a thought provoking insider view on the Mehlis report here

Mazher Mahmood the sleazy reporter for Rupe’s rag, News of the World, is famous notorious as the “Fake Sheikh” who outed Prince Edward’s wife as a royalty tout, and “exposed” the plot to kidnap the Beckam sprogs (the court case collapsed when MM’s agent provacateur antics were exposed) and got bit part actor John Alford from “London’s Burning” banged up for small time drug dealing.

He’s at it again.

This week he lines up “fanatic” Imran Patel (no relation) who he has fingered to the Police and who was picked up by 20 anti-terrorist officers at 8.45pm on Saturday on his way to his mosque and taken to Leeds police station (NOT Paddington Green where they tale the real suspects) for questioning. (“You are going to be doing some overtime this weekend my boy!” "..Yes Sarge”)

I am confident that this deluded, weak minded lad will be released without charge – unless it is for wasting police time – which the intrepid sleuth MM most certainly is.

In conversations with the News of the World ( to whom he willingly spoke to warn people of the "validity of the coming jihad") he claims the 7/7 bombers came to his house, held discussions about their "mission" to carry out terrorist attacks in Britain. Patel decided NOT to join them when they suggested one of their targets should be a school where the victims would be innocent children. Public transport was discussed. "I thought he was talking about the Underground," said Patel.

"He mentioned the Houses of Parliament, nuclear power stations, universities. He did say schools and I said no."

Of course the Police … still scratching through tons of trains, bus debris, and squillions of CCTV images … have to take note of any information the public provide. Here’s some for them … Sir Ian Blair tells lies in public about the progress of their investigations. Arrest him for wasting the Public’s time … and money.

The United Nations withheld the names of some of the most senior Lebanese and Syrian officials in Herr Mehli’s interim report. They were Maher al-Assad, Assef Shawkat, Hassan Khalil, Bahjat Suleyman and Jamal al-Sayyed.

The final edit began at about 11.38am on Thursday 20/10/05 one minute after Herr Mehlis met Kofi Annan to present his report. The names of Maher al-Assad, General Shawkat and the others were apparently removed at 11.55am, after the meeting ended.Herr Mehlis said Mr Annan (his boss) applied no pressure. Nobody outside his team team influenced these changes and no changes whatsoever were suggested by the Secretary-General, he said.

Either they don’t understand how Word works like the dumb assholes and fuckwits in Blair's office at No 10 when preparing "dodgy dossiers" from cobbled together out of date Internet scrapings and wanted to present the high powered workings of a super sophisticated information gathering apparatus and ultra efficient secret service to justify the Prime Ministers lies, dishonesty and deceit to his Party, Parliament and the World in probably the biggest PR fuck-up of all time or someone wanted to ensure the names appeared in the public arena without attribution.

UN investigator Detlev Mehlis has just released his pallid, incomplete and mystifying report on Rafik Hariri’s death (earlier UN report also released here). Mehlis asked for more time to work with Lebanese investigators, and in a letter accompanying the report, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has extended Mehlis' investigation until December 15. BBC report outline of the main players involved is helpful. (pic Asma Assad)

THIS IS NOT THE FINAL REPORT ... although the MSM might encourage you to believe that.

Such is the state of forensic science, even with one tonne of explosives he cannot be certain what type was used .. or it’s source. He has found that there were / are a lot of bad guys about who were watching Hariri – which being the Saudi backed capo di capo of the region who amassed massive amounts of money from rebuilding Lebanon on the back of crooked politicians, drug dealers, counterfeiters, shysters is not an astonishing revelation.

Chirac turned up for the funeral, the French, who had struggled for the mandate in Paris in 1918 and have always seen it as their sea to swim in, approved Resolution 1559, which led to Syria's complete withdrawal from Lebanon a few months later.

China and Russia, were publicly silent and allowed Resolution 1559 and the resolution that authorized Mehlis’s investigation. Russia went ahead with selling Assad some SA - 18 anti aircraft missiles he has bought on a recent shopping spree with Vladimir Putin eaarlier... this did not impress (nor was it meant to) Ariel Sharon,

"We are not pleased with the sales of weapons to Syria, particularly sophisticated weapons that Russia intends to sell to Syria, weapons that may end up in the hands of terror organisations,"

Within days of Hariris killing the US withdrew their Ambassador and blamed Syria.

The Israeli’s whilst gently stirring the pot from within the arras, have remained modestly silent.. until now that Mehlis has produced his interim report.

The ageing Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres couldn’t wait to get on Israeli Radio on Friday and call for regime change in Syria 'I think Syria needs a change, it is neither natural nor acceptable that a family representing a small minority should govern Syria in a brutal fashion.' (The Assads are of the small but perfectly formed Allawite Islamist sect)

'If it is true that the Syrian government is implicated in the assassination of Rafiq Hairi, that will undermine the regime of the Assads,' Peres said.

Of course Israel wants to topple Bashar and his beautiful bride, Peres led the way, another ageing voice, ex Mossad boss, London born Ephraim Halevy chimed in calling for “regime change”. "The head of the Syrian pyramid is Bashar Assad," Halevy told Israel Army Radio. "I don't think ... there is any doubt that this was an extensive and coordinated operation that was planned for many months. Lots of people from the Syrian elite were involved."

Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee ally of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was reported in Haaretz calling for regime change in Damascus."As far as I am concerned ... and here I have a dispute with some of the people in the security establishment, it is not just an American interest but a clear Israeli interest to end the Assad dynasty and replace Bashar Assad."

The pro-Israel lobby in the US sponsored legislation—the Syria Accountability Act to isolate Syria before - expect a re-visit to such policies.

Dubya chimed in calling upon the United Nations to “convene a session as quickly as possible to deal with this very serious matter”. Obediently Bush’s bathroom monitor… responded ….” "A report of that kind has got to be both discussed and debated in the U.N. Security Council, and there will have to be some way to ensure accountability for what has already been found here,"…”it cannot be left lying on the table”.

Jack Straw , squiring the Veep elect Condi through Alabama also joined the choir,” "You simply cannot tolerate a situation where one state decides to deal with problems of another state by assassinating the other state's leaders." Blair had probably reminded Jack as he swept off to tailgate in Tuscaloosa what he told the Guradian in early March…

” A ripple of change is running through the Middle East “ warning the Syrian government to grab a last chance to comply with international demands.Mr Straw said to the BBC he "could not discuss the details of any UN resolution against Syria".

This is of course the unfolding of a historic plan – which requires a revisit to the 1996 policy paper prepared with shortly to be ex Veep “Limp” Dick Cheney, and his neo-con gangster friends, Richard Perle, Doug Feith, David and Meyrav Wurmser, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., and Robert Loewenberg,

Entitled "Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," this proposed shredding the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority , and, first Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Iran, would be targeted for military assault and political destabilization.

The document boldly and uncompromisingly states that Israel should engage

"Hizbollah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon, including by ... establishing the precedent that Syrian territory is not immune to attacks emanating from Lebanon by Israeli proxy forces [and] striking Syrian military targets in Lebanon, and should that prove insufficient, striking at select targets in Syria proper."

Furthermore, it said, Israel should divert "Syria's attention by using Lebanese opposition elements to destabilize Syrian control of Lebanon." First on the agenda of establishing the regional strategy called for "removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq...."

The outcome of this regional seismic shifting which was the heart of the "Clean Break" doctrine, was a new Middle East, with Israel hegemonic in the region, presiding over newly balkanized states, run by puppet regimes. Noticeably they form parts of the Bush Administration’s "outposts of tyranny" identified by Condi early this year. The menu is the same, the dishes have been shuffled in the kitchen, and Iran has moved down and Syria has moved into first place.

Note too…Bush calls for Condi to shift the debate to the UN, where Bolton will try (probably without success, such is his popularity) to ram through a motion for an assault on pariah state Syria. Then , whatever the result, re-run Shock and Awe. Mission Unending support for the Mil – Industrial complex who have stockpiled enough stuff since “Desert Storm” for another noisy Son et Lumiére show in the sand.

Remember in 1967, Israel gobbled up, as fruits of war territory that doubled it’s size. Much was not annexed … the West Bank .. but is "territory militarily administered by Israel" and the now discarded prison for the Palestinians, which used to be called the Gaza Strip.

The Golan Heights are quite legally Syrian territory but strategically vital to Israel;

1. As a military outpost a small plateau region that ends in cliffs overlooking the Sea of Galilee (which is inside Israel proper) providing unrivalled opportunity to shell Israel.

2. Water, of which the main source is the Jordan River is essential to Israel (and everyone else in the region) .

Reflecting what Gerry Adams said in another place .... the neo-Cons have not gone away… and the Bible Bashers of the Beltway are happily following the script.

Meanwhile in a further mystifying step in the labyrinth of intrigue which surrounds this violent and messy bombing (which killed not only Hariri but 21 others) ….this is reported in the International Herald Tribune on October 17th …” French police arrested former Syrian intelligence officer accused of lying to UN staff investigating the assassination of Rafik Hariri in Beirut, police and judicial officials said Monday.

Zuhair Mohammed Al-Siddiq was taken into custody Sunday in the Paris suburb of Chatou by France's DST counterespionage service, He was the subject of an international arrest warrant and is expected to be extradited, the police said.